Questioning the first Greyjoy rebellion

[Michael Stark thenewwolf]

I really wish we knew how it all went down time wise. Mostly how Stannis could sail the royal fleet from either Kings landing or Dragon Stone and get to fair isle. That would have to take months. did Vic and Euron just chill after sacking Lanisport. Or did the iron fleet then sail north past fair isle to Sea guard to get turned back by the Mallisters, to sail south again and get stuck in the strait?

[Trigger Warning]

I wouldn't think too much about it, I doubt GRRM did. It's just background fluff. 

[Canon Claude]

8 hours ago, Michael Stark thenewwolf said:

I really wish we knew how it all went down time wise. Mostly how Stannis could sail the royal fleet from either Kings landing or Dragon Stone and get to fair isle. That would have to take months. did Vic and Euron just chill after sacking Lanisport. Or did the iron fleet then sail north past fair isle to Sea guard to get turned back by the Mallisters, to sail south again and get stuck in the strait?

A lot of stuff had to happen in a short amount of time. The Starks had to summon their bannermen (which takes a lot of time), the Royal Fleet had to sail around Westeros to the Iron Islands, linking up with the Redwyne Fleet and the Lannister forces too. All while Balon sends his Iron Fleet to wreck havoc. 

My guess would be that a lot of raiding happened in between the big battles. Like, the Ironborn split up and do what they do best. They would no doubt be hard to control, especially if raiding was what they wanted the freedom to do again in the first place. The whole west coast must have been raided while everyone else hurried over to crush them. Or maybe Balon withdrew after his son died at Seagard. Maybe that took the wind out of his sails and he figured they needed to go on the defensive. Who knows.